Researchers on the Rachel Maddow Show have obtained documents showing that the younger Palin filed paperwork in September to launch a company that can provide lobbying, public relations and political consulting services.

Thomas Van Flein, Palin's lawyer, told Maddow that Bristol Palin incorporated herself as part of her work as "ambassador" for the Candie's Foundation, an abstinence-oriented youth group.

Bristol's firm "may just be a pretty smart financial decision by a very astute 19-year-old, or Bristol Palin is about to launch a lobbying and consultancy firm to run her mom's 2012 presidential campaign!" Maddow exclaimed. "Theoretically possible, but probably not."

One cynical interpretation of this bizarre development could be that hiring Bristol would be a way to get access to Sarah Palin. Which leads to the follow-up question -- why would anyone really want to pay for access to Sarah Palin? Are Fox News contributors that hard to get?

Raw Story finds an even more cynical possibility:

The Palin-oriented And So It Goes blog suggests that Bristol's PR firm may be a way for the Palin family to siphon money away from SarahPAC, Sarah Palin's political fundraising group, and to the family's personal coffers.